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COMMANDEI^y OF THE DI^Tl^IdT OF COLUMBIA, 



WAR PAPERS. 

78 

S^cKoes and ilacideRls from a (Suriboat "Holilla. 

PREPARED BY COMPANION 

Captain 

THOMAS NELSON, 

U, S. Navy, 

ANO 

READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF DECEMBER 1, 1909. 



.X3V 



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iErl)nrB attb ilttrtb^tttH from a (Suttbnat JlottUa. 



Soon after the secession movement had taken actual shape 
in 1 86 1, bv the formation of armies in the vSouth and the 
erection of batteries along the Virginia shores of the Potomac, 
notably at Aquia Creek, Cockpit Point and for a distance of 
ten or fifteen miles below, including the neighborhood of Evans- 
port, which covered the most intricate and difficult part of navi- 
gation ; with the vState of Maryland, at that time an unknown 
quantitv bordering on the other side of the river, it became 
evident to the most casual observer that something must be 
done, and quickly, to prevent the control of the river from fall- 
ing into the hands of the Confederates. 

The Government, realizing this fact, promptly proceeded 
to organize a suitable force for that purpose. 

The ships of the regular Navy were not well adapted to the 
work, because of their size and heavy draft, and besides, tbev' 
were needed for service on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts fur 
blockading and other duties. 

It, therefore, became necessary to look elsewhere for suitable 
material, in the form of handy, light draft steamers, to patrol 
the river and its numerous inlets, bays and creeks. 

As early as May 12, 1861, we find Commander J- H. Ward. 
U. S. Navy, under orders from the Navy Department, in con- 
sultation with Capt. S. L. Breese, Commandant of the Navy 
Yard, New York, the result of which was the purchase of four 
small steamers, the Thomas Freeborn, Jacob Bell, Resolute, 
and Reliance. These vessels were quickly converted into gun- 
boats by the installation of batteries and other necessary equip- 
ments and fittings and forthwith launched into active service. 

The Philadelphia ice-boat (otherwise known as the Relief), 



loaned to the Government by the municipahty of the Quaker 
City, with the above named vessels constituted the nucleus of 
the Potomac flotilla, around which was built up, as rapidly as 
appropriations and other conditions permitted, a force which 
in 1864 numbered thirty-one vessels, ranging in size from 50 
tons to 650 tons and mounting in aggregate 103 guns, in main 
batteries, including all calibers and weights, from a 12-pounder 
howitzer to a 9-inch gun in smooth-bore, and from a 3-inch to 
a 6.4-inch (loo-pounder Parrott) in rifled ordnance. 

Onlv a few of the vessels, however, carried the larger guns. 
Among these were the Coiu'o Read and the Coni'o Morris, both 
formerly New York ferry-boats, converted into gunboats, for 
river service, and armed with four o-inch Dahlgreens in broadside, 
and one loo-pounder Parrott rifle in pivot on each end. 

One vessel (the Cnrrihick) had a battery of four 32 -pounders 
of 57 cwt., in broadside, and a 30-pounder Parrott rifle in pivot, 
forward. 

Other vessels mounted a couple of 32 pounders of the lighter 
weights, in broadside, and, generally, a small rifle in pivot for- 
ward (20-pounder Dahlgreen or Parrott), a few carried the 50- 
pounder Dahlgreen rifle, and one or two had 8-inch shell-guns. 

Vessels too small to accommodate these batteries were armed 
with one or two howitzers (a 20-pounder rifle forward and a 
24-pounder smooth-bore aft) ; and if only one gun was carried 
the after one was dispensed with. 

In addition to the main battery, several of the larger boats 
were supplied, each, with a light 12-pounder howitzer on field- 
carriage, or a gatling gun, as secondary battery and for landing 
purposes. 

All the vessels were equipped with small arms, including 
rifles, pistols, cutlasses and pikes, in accordance with the 
ordnance regulations of the time. 

The Commanders-in-Chief of the flotilla, regularly ordered 
as such, were, in the order of dates of assignment, as follows : 



1. Commander J. H. Ward, who was killed while in the act 
of sighting a 32 -pounder on board the Thomas I'lccbovn at 
iMathias Point on June 27, 1S61. 

2. Commander Thos. T. Craven, June 29 to November 9, 
1861. 

3. lyieut. Commanding R. H. Wyman, December 5, 1861, to 
June 30, 1862. 

4. Commodore A. A. Harwood, July i to September 2, 1862. 

5. Commodore Charles Wilkes. September 2 to September 
9, 1862. 

6. Commodore A. A. Harwood, September 9, 1862, to December 
31, 1863. 

7. Commander F. A. Parker, December 31, 1863, to July 31, 
1865. The date of the disbandment of the flotilla. 

Officers temporarily filling the place of Commander-in-Chief, 
during intervals between dates above stated, were: Com- 
manders S. C. Rowan and John P. Gillis and Lieut. Command- 
ing A. D. Harrell. 

The commissioned personnel of the flotilla, with exception 
of the Commander-in-Chief and one or two aids; and under the 
administration of Commodore Harwood, two division com- 
manders, was composed of volunteer ofificers, whose disposition 
as regards duty was entirely in the hands of the Commander-in 
Chief, who was also apparently the sole judge of the fitness of 'S 
an officer for command or other responsible place on board a 
vessel, and who could use discretion in the selection of men to 
fill these places. 

Whatever may be said of such a system applied to the regular 
organization, in the flotilla it worked very well. 

Considering the fact that many of the officers were transferred 
from civil life, with little or no military training, and suddenly 
appointed to responsible positions in a new profession, it 
requires no lengthy argument to prove that careful selection 
of men for the most important duties became a grave necessity 



and that the responsible officer, on the spot, should be accorded 
the right to select. 

Under this system, if a commanding officer failed to make 
good he was promptly replaced by another and relegated to 
subordinate duty on board some other vessel, under an officer 
senior in rank to himself. 

The exercise of this duty on the part of the Commander-in- 
Chief, was probably not a pleasant one, but the heart-burns 
and humiliation of the person afifected could not be considered 
when compared with the interests and exigencies of the service ; 
and the ultimate effect was to raise the tone and standard of 
the officers generally, to inculcate habits of study, industry 
and emulation, which finally resulted in a state of discipline 
and efficiency not excelled by any other organization afloat. 
It should be stated here that, prior to the fall of Alexandria 
and the fortifications on the Virginia shore, there were quite a 
number of regular officers, in addition to those previously 
mentioned, who participated in the engagements with the 
batteries at Aquia Creek and elsewhere, while on duty with 
the ships employed in the reduction of the Confederate works. 
But after the evacuation by the enemy of the river-shores, and 
when the daily papers began to report: "All quiet on the 
Potomac," these officers, impelled by a loyal ambition to 
serve their country more effectively, sought assignment 
to duty in fields of wider renown and greater glory and soon 
bade farewell to the "quiet" Potomac and its baby flotilla. 

It is not my purpose to swell the pages of this paper by insert- 
ing a muster roll of officers of the flotilla, nor to introduce a 
complete list of the vessels thereof, as these are matters of 
record and can be obtained by referring to the Navy Registers 
of '62, '63, '64 and '65 and by consulting "The Official Records 
of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebel- 
lion" (Series I, Vols. 4 and 5). But it may be proper to 
mention, here, that Commander John A. Dahlgreen, who was 



Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard during the period 
covering the aforesaid incidents, seems to have acted as a sort 
of Intermediary between the vSecretary of the Navy and the 
Commander of the hotiUa, and in that capacity appears to 
have exercised a mild form of supervision over the movements 
of the vessels in cases of exigency that called for prompt 
decision; and, to that extent. Commander Dahlgreen may be 
regarded as having been connected with the flotilla. 

With the detachment of the ollticers, and departure of the 
ships of the regular establisment, among which were the 
Pawnee, Pocahontas and others; the Potomac flotilla may 
be said to have taken its first stand as a separate and distinct 
unit of the naval forces operating to suppress the rebellion. 

Whether or not all of the officers who severed their connection 
with the flotilla, after the heavy fighting was supposed to have 
been concluded, covered themselves with glory (some of them 
did) I am unable to say, but I do assert that they missed a 
grand opportunity for participating in the meanest, most con- 
temptible and wretched kind of fighting ever recorded any- 
where in civilized warfare. 

After the withdrawal of the regular Confederate forces, and 
the departure of every man of character and principle who 
had cast his lot with the southern cause, for the front, to take 
up arms in defense of what he believed to be right and just, 
there were supposed to be left only the women, the children 
and the old men. The negroes, of course, were left to do the 
work. But not so — there was another class of individuals, 
spiritless and degenerate, who were in hiding when the men 
went to the front and came out only after the coast was clear 
to engage in the lucrative business of smuggling; and inci- 
dentally, where opportunity came, to indulge in vandalism, 
piracy and murder, all in the name of the Confederacy under 
pretense of the exercise of belligerent rights. 

That the Confederacy would have hanged these villains, if 



8 

their identity had been known to the proper authorities, I have 
no doubt; but they were not taking any chances of being 
exposed or captured, as whenever a regular mihtary force 
appeared these wretches took to the woods and remained in 
concealment until all danger of being caught had passed. 

Glancing briefly at the operations of these vandals we find 
them engaged, first, in wanton destruction of property owned 
by a few citizens who declined to identify themselves with the 
secession movement and failed to join the southern army; and, 
further, in active and continuous persecution of these people, 
until they were either killed, driven to madness or compelled 
to leave the country. 

Next we hear of them having boarded, looted and destroyed 
or carried off some defenseless vessel, becalmed, aground or 
otherwise unable to move, in the Chesapeake Bay or on some 
river in Virginia. Hence the name "Chesapeake Bay Pirate" 
whose catalogue of crimes includes both arson and murder. 

By way of illustration of the depravity of these rascals, 
and as an example of what actually occurred on more than 
one occasion, let us suppose a man dressed after the fashion 
of a farm-hand, peacefully trudging behind a plow or lolling 
lazily on the driver's seat of a country cart ; who by accident 
or design, as the case may be, is brought face to face with a 
landing party from a gunboat, and when questioned by the 
office-in-charge, professes the most ardent affection for the 
Union cause, and proceeds to tell a pathetic story of hardship 
and persecution that he has to endure on account of his political 
opinions. 

Then by way of proving his loyalty, and as if suddenlv 
seized by a patriotic impulse to injure the Confederate cause 
to the full extent of his opportunity, he takes a careful look 
around, and, in a whisper, informs the officer that at a house 
about two miles distant, in a direction which he indicates, is 
located a cargo of contraband goods landed from a schooner 



two days before; that there is not an enemy in sij^ht within 
twenty miles of the place and that the owner is a wealthy 
farmer with lots of horses, oxen and carts that can be used for 
transporting the goods to the river. Finally, in a crowning 
effort to convince the officer that he is a good Union man he 
states that he lives in constant dread of being impressed for 
military service, and that whenever regular soldiers appear 
in the vicinity, he has to nm away and hide in the woods. 

When I tell you that the landing of small parties, such as a 
cutter's crew, for the recovery of contraband goods known to 
have been smuggled into the country, was a matter of frequent 
occurrence, you may better comprehend the object of the 
farm-hand in giving the information ; as if, thereby, he could 
delay the return of the party a couple of hours or less, he would 
have time to assemble his vile companions on some point down 
the creek, where under perfect cover they would be absolutely 
safe from harm while murdering the crew of a boat exposed in 
the open. 

These contemptible specimens of creation never sought a 
contest with an armed force, however small, in the open; always 
firing from cover or in ambush, with a view solely to sub- 
stantial compensation in the form of plunder. 

I would not be understood to say that these vampires or 
their methods were recognized or sanctioned by the several 
groups of elderly men and grown boys left with their families 
and organized into semi-military bodies commonly known as 
Home Guards, for the protection of their homes and firesides; 
nor should their actions be confounded with those of the regu- 
larly commissioned or appointed agents of the Confederacy, 
such, for example, as John Taylor Wood, an ex-lieutenant of 
the U. S. Navy, who resigned and took up arms for the Con- 
federacy, and who surprised, boarded and captured two of our 
gunboats in the mouth of the Rappahannock River. He failed 
in several other attempts to capture gunboats, but succeeded 



lO • 

at various times in seizing vessels laden with government stores, 
and destroying lights, buoys and other navigation marks, all 
this, however, in the recognized line of warfare with a view only 
to injure the enemy. 

But to return to the main subject, the flotilla proper. Its 
work extended from Alexandria to York River, including the 
Potomac, Wycomico, Rappahannock and Piankatank rivers, 
with all the intervening creeks, inlets and bays; all of which 
offered great facilities for contraband trade, and had to be 
watched incessantly to prevent it. 

Owing to the small number of vessels available in the early 
days of the flotilla and the scarcity of officers and men to man 
them, this became a ponderous task, difficult of execution; as 
with all the activity and vigilance possible within extreme 
human physical limits, a flourishing illicit trade was maintained 
between the states of Maryland and Virginia, and perhaps 
between Virginia and other states, by the use of larger vessels 
capable of navigating the ocean with safety ; but the exceptions, 
if any, were rare as only small, fast vessels were properly 
adapted to the business. 

The kind of vessels employed in these enterprises was, to a 
limited extent, fast schooners or pungies with a carrying capacity 
of from fifteen to thirty tons ; but the more popular and much 
better adapted craft was the eastern-shore three-masted canoe, 
which, with a good breeze, could outsail anything afloat, and 
being long and low in the water, with leg-of-mutton sails, was 
not easily detected on a dark night. These quaUties, considered 
in connection with her handiness and light draft, made her an 
ideal blockade runner. 

These canoes would carry from one to three tons in weight, 
exclusive of crew, and be safe in the the strongest breezes that 
blow in the bay; barring, of course, a heavy storm into which no 
vessel would venture if she could avoid it. 

The above remarks apply especially to vessels having to cross 



II 

Chesapeake Bay; on the rivers almost any kind of boat woukl 
answer. 

With the lapse of time and increase of the flotilla, this trade 
was reduced to a minimum and finally, when the flotilla was 
fully equipped, became dangerous and unprofitable and was 
practically abandoned. 

As regards the niunber and location of trading stations on the 
Potomac I shall not attempt an account; but in a general way 
would say that every town, village, hamlet and barn, situated 
on or near the bank of a river, creek, inlet or stream, that 
afforded proper shelter and cover from observation, with a 
depth of water equal to a foot or more at -low tide on the Mary- 
land shore, became a place of export, and every similar spot 
on the Virginia side was made a port of entry. 

Between these places, on opposite shores, where the width 
of the river made it practicable, was estaDlished a system of 
signals that enabled the parties concerned to maintain regular 
communication, and thereby to reduce to a minimum the 
chances of being caught. 

Notwithstanding these precautions a good many captures 
were made and the goods confiscated; but the profits of the 
business were such that an investor could easily afford to lose 
one-half of his venture and still have a large balance on the 
credit side of his ledger, with which to continue his hazardous 
undertakings. As a matter of fact, one of these smugglers, 
after being captured, coolly informed me that if he could save 
one cargo in ten he would lose nothing. 

It appears that no penalty other than confiscation of vessel 
and goods was enforced in such cases, and that, unless incrim- 
inating documents or other evidence of active participation in 
the war were discovered, the culprits were set at liberty. 

Because of the great number of smuggling stations on the 
Potomac, the major portion of the force had to be employed 
there, leaving only a few vessels to attend to the business on 
the bay. 



12 , 

The eastern shore of Maryland offered abundant opportunity 
for the transmission of contraband goods by crossing Chesapeake 
Bay; and out of the sounds and inlets in that region came 
pouring a multitude of small craft, deeply laden with mer- 
chandise of all descriptions needed by the residents of the 
country and the army in the field in Virginia. To prevent or 
to check this trade became the duty of the few gunboats of the 
lower division, stationed in the bay to patrol the coast and rivers, 
between Point Lookout and York River. 

A circumstance greatly favoring the execution of this task 
was the fact that, while the issuing stations on the eastern shore 
of Maryland were numerous, the receiving depots in Virginia 
were comparatively few, being practically limited to the main 
rivers, Wycomico, Rappahannock and Piankatank,and a small 
number of intervening creeks. 

Prominent among the latter were Dividing and Mill creeks 
between Wycomico and Rappahannock, and Jackson's Creek, 
near the mouth of the Piankatank. 

The scarcity in number, however, was more than compensated 
for by their capacity to accommodate and shelter all that could 
escape capture. 

The natural protection afforded Dividing and Mill creeks 
by shoal water, tortuous channels and narrow entrance, 
thickly studded with small trees and foliage, sufficient to screen 
from observation any craft once inside and at the same time 
to furnish excellent cover for sharpshooters to operate on 
any undesirable party attempting to enter there, made these 
creeks the most popular resorts of the traders. 

Jackson's Creek, with its deep water, perfect protection and 
places of concealment, supplied the needs of the larger kind of 
vessels employed and became a rendezvous for that class. 

The main rivers were often attempted but rarely with success, 
the exceptions being when, from any cause, the blockading 
vessel happened to be temporarily absent from her station. 



13 

A couple of hours, with a good breeze and fair wind, were all 
sufficient for a fast -sailing schooner to get under cover at some 
landing up the river; and as the value of the vessel was but a 
trifle compared with the profits, on delivery of the cargo, there 
was never any hesitation about entering when an opportunity 
presented itself. 

The trade on Dividing Creek, however, had become a nauseat- 
ing fact, and notwithstanding many captures appeared to 
grow and prosper. 

Several boat expeditions, sent up the creek, had resulted 
in finding a vacant beach, or, at best, a few empty canoes, the 
kilHng and wounding from ambush of several men, and no 
material gain in other respects. 

It became evident that something else must be done to get 
results, and it was decided that a canoe known to be in the 
business should be employed to carry up the creek a number 
of men sufficient to cope with any force likely to be found there. 

Accordingly, the next large canoe captured was unloaded, 
the men on board of her confined, their outside clothing appro- 
priated and other garments given them to wear. 

The following morning, at daybreak, that same catioe entered 
the creek with an officer, dressed as an eastern-shore man, 
at the helm, and two of the sailors, similarly attired, one at each 
mast forward ; while twenty-two men lay concealed on the 
floor of the craft, with some empty boxes and bales, exposed 
above, to make her appear like the real thing. 

In this way she sailed, unmolested and apparently unsuspected, 
up the creek to the head of the line of canoes beached, bow on, 
along the shore, and there landed. 

To display the United States flag, disembark and deploy 
along the beach, abreast the canoes, was but the work of a 
moment ; and the astonished boatmen, before they had time 
to recover from the shock, readily obeyed the order to shove off 
and report on board the gunboat outside. 



14 * 

After carefully scouring the woods and firing a few volleys 
into the brush, the crew was re-embarked, the channel sounded 
and ranges obtained on shore by the use of which the gunboats 
were subsequently, under favorable conditions, able to enter; 
and the securitv of Dividing Creek had passed away. 

But the work of the flotilla was not limited to the matter 
of blockading only. Each vessel was required to patrol the 
coast and river banks within her station, to prevent the con- 
struction of earthworks for batteries and the placing of obstruc- 
tions in the channel. 

By a general order, vessels were directed to be under way at 
night, and those having as many as four line officers on board 
were expected to have two picket boats out. 

This left but one officer as a relief for picket duty, and the 
commanding officer alone to look out for the ship, to keep her 
afloat in deep water, and yet sufficiently near the shore to be 
within rescuing distance of the picket boats, to keep the look- 
outs and watch on deck on the alert and the engineer at the 
throttle from going to sleep; and, finally, to be at all times 
prepared for attack or defense against a boarding party such as 
successfully surprised and captured two of our gunboats in the 
Rappahannock. 

The night work, taken in connection with the patrol duty 
during daylight, left for the officers but little if any time to 
rest. Sleep was a commodity very sparingly distributed. The 
relief officer could at best get but a couple of hours at a time, 
and the commanding officer none at all. A few cat-naps while 
the vessel was at anchor in a safe place for a brief interval 
during daylight was all that he could hope for. 

But most of the men were young, full of healthy vigor and 
inured to hardship; so the fatigue of arduous duty was never 
considered when work had to be done in obedience to orders. 

Once in two weeks, however, when a vessel wxnt to head- 
quarters (St. Inigoes) for coal and stores, the officers had a 
chance to store up a little sleep. 



15 

The foregoing is a brief statement of every-dav routine 
on board ships in the lower or bay division of the flotilla, but it 
frequently beeame necessary, while the vessel was attending 
to her regular patrol duty, to detach a small party for landing 
purposes, to intercept and destroy, or if possible to capture and 
bring away, a cargo of smuggled goods known to have been 
landed and about to be transported to the interior (such infor- 
mation was usually obtained from friendly negroes). 

A party of that character was ordinarily composed of from 
seven to eleven men and an officer, and the modus operandi 
was to land at the nearest point to the object sought, leave 
one or two men to take care of the boat, and with the rest 
make a dash for the road. 

If it was found that the goods had departed and were not 
more than two or three miles away, the nearest farm would 
be visited, horses impressed and the partv mounted. Then 
riding furiously over a country road, a great cloud of dust would 
be raised, the sight of which easily conveyed to the custodians of 
the goods the impression that a whole regiment was after them, 
with the result of a general skedaddle that left only the negro 
drivers of the teams with the caravan. 

Many of these were not averse to being caught, and cheerfully 
turned back when ordered; furthermore, they would tell all 
they knew about the presence of armed forces in the neighbor- 
hood, and upon such information depended, as a rule, the 
disposition of the wares. 

Occasionally a larger force would be organized, for a similar 
purpose, by combining detachments from several vessels, 
under command of a senior officer; but this was done only 
in cases where resistance was expected or distance to be traveled 
considerable. 

Successful achievement of such an undertaking was made 
possible only by a bold dash and rapid movement throughout. 
Deliberation in a case of the kind would have been fatal, as the 



1 6* 



Home Guard, if given time to assemble, was more than able 
to handle any number of men that could be spared from the 
vessels for service on shore. 

As far as I know only one such party was ever captured ; 
but several had hair-breadth escapes, with some of their men 
killed or wounded, generally from ambush after leaving the 
shore. 

On rare occasions a small landing party would run up against 
a roving troop of regular cavalry, scouring the lower necks in 
search of forage recruits and horses for the army, and too strong 
to be engaged with any hope of success. Nothing serious, 
however, resulted from these meetings, as the country was 
abundantlv wooded and cavalry could not follow without 
dismounting, which for some reason or other, so far as I know, 
they never attempted to do; and the fun of shooting from 
cover, while retreating, was a sort of picnic for the sailors. 

In the foregoing pages I have endeavored to give a general 
idea of the flotilla and its works, with one or two examples of the 
methods employed, in special cases, to accomplish it. I will 
now, by way of explanation of the terms used to characterize 
the kind of fighting that was done, submit a few examples to 
elucidate that subject : 

1. The flag of truce was so often violated, when displayed 
from shore, that it soon came to be regarded as merely a ruse 
to entice a picket or other boat within rifle range of the brush 
in order to murder the crew. 

2. A man, in appearance a negro, would be seen frantically 
waving a white cloth on the shore. This was commonly under- 
stood to be a signal for relief and a boat would be sent to bring 
him off (in accordance with orders to that effect issued after the 
promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation), but when 
within range, and before the boat could land, the man would 
suddenly fall back and disappear in the brush, after which a 
volley of rifle bullets would come whizzing about the heads 
of the crew. 



17 

3- Again, a firing party wonld be found operating behind 
a breastwork of unwilling women and children whose screams, 
lamentations and pleadings precluded the possibility of return- 
ing the fire. 

I want here again to state my firm belief that none of these 
outrages were ever committed by Confederate troops or by 
members of the regular Home Guard; but by a gang of outlaws, 
who always selected, for the perpetration of their crimes, some 
locality other than the one in which they lived and were known. 
As subsequent investigation invariably proved, to the satisfac- 
tion of everybody, the people in the vicinity had nothing 
to do with it, but were compelled at the muzzle of a gun to do 
as they were told. 

The above-mentioned cases are but samples of what occurred 
every day and all the time, although generally in less aggravated 
form, until patrol and picket duty became irksome and disagree- 
able as well as hazardous and dangerous. 

When under these circumstances patience and forbearance 
were thoroughly exhausted, the practice of shelling every 
doubtful spot before passing it became the rule ; and although 
by this method some innocent people may have been made to 
suffer, yet in view of the law of self-preservation there appeared 
to be no other alternative. 

Numerous expeditions, in force, to the head of navigation 
in the several rivers, were organized and executed under the 
personal orders of the Commander-in-Chief, or one of his 
division commanders, for the pin'])()se of clearing awaN' torpedoes 
or other obstructions, levelling earthworks, rifle-pits and all 
other impediments to the free navigation of the rivers bv trans- 
ports carrying stores and equipments to the armv; for the 
destruction of salt-works and other aids to the enemv's cause; 
and, finally, for co-operation with the army in the field, operating 
against Confederate forces within gunboat range of the river. 

But these are all recorded in the government publication 



i8 

previously referred to and need not be specially mentioned 
here. 

In addition to its regular work or service within its proper 
jurisdictional limits, the flotilla or a detachment therefrom 
was occasionally called upon for duty elsewhere. 

It was a gunboat of the Potomac flotilla which, immediately 
after the evacuation of Yorktown and Gloucester by the 
Confederates, and the commencement of General McClellan's 
advance toward Richmond on his peninsular campaign in May, 
1862, went up the York River, hoisted the flag on West Point, 
at the junction of the Mattapony and Pamunkey rivers, then 
ascended the latter river to White House bridge, removing, 
on its passage, two sets of obstructions, and made the way clear 
for the army transports to White House. 

Later, this same vessel, in company with an army gunboat, 
having on board a detachment of infantry, went up the Pamun- 
key to the head of navigation, near Hanover, and destroyed the 
rebel transport fleet used at Yorktown prior to evacuation; 
and still later, after McClellan's famous retreat, was at Malvern 
Hill, on James River, and participated in Uie engagement 
there and at Harrison's Landing and elsewhere. 

Again, on the Rappahannock, during General Burnside's 
attack on Fredericksburg in December, 1862, a division of the 
Potomac flotilla was in active co-operation with the army there. 

Many other instances of joint operations with army forces 
might be cited here, but they would add nothing new to history 
and are therefore omitted. It may, however, be stated that 
to the Potomac flotilla is due the preservation of railroad 
communication between Perryville and Baltimore, which, 
during each of the several raids into Maryland, was threatened 
by attempted destruction of the railroad crossings over the 
Susquehanna, Bush and Gunpowder rivers. 

As a matter of fact one of these efforts on the part of the 
raiders came near to success when in July, 1864, a detachment 



19 

of Gen. Jubal Barley's force captured a train at Magnolia 
station, set it on fire and backed it on to the Gunpowder bridge, 
which in turn was ignited and slightly damaged. 

The gunboat sent there arrived in time to see the burning 
train on the bridge, but for lack of water, grounded several 
miles away, yet the crew of the vessel was quickly landed, 
the fire put out and the bridge saved. 

And further, as if there was not sufficient excitement to be 
found in the performance of the ordinary and the extraordinary 
duties of the flotilla, frequent rumors of prospective attempts to 
liberate the twenty thousand prisoners at Point Lookout were 
circulated to stimulate the wakefulness and vigilance of its 
personnel. 

One of six hundred Confederate officers transferred from 
Point Lookout to Fort Delaware on board an army transport, 
convoyed by a gunboat, told me, after landing at Fort Delaware, 
that but for the "damn gunboat" they would have taken that 
steamer and gone home. 

Finally, the flotilla was frequently required to furnish convoy 
for niailboats, transports and other vessels needing protection. 

In conclusion I will say that "Parker's squadron tactics 
under steam" were first tried, tested and proven by maneuvers 
with the vessels of the Potomac flotilla, imder the personal 
supervision of the author. 

And now, in loyal remembrance of the old flotilla and reverend 
rememoration of those who have passed away, I have penned, 
with sincere aff"ection for the few survivors of the Lincoln 
gunboats and others interested, these imperfect lines — "Lest 
we forget." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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